Karen Vaughn of Stuart, with husband Billy, after speaking to Florida Republican National Convention delegates. She will speak to the GOP convention tonight about the death of her son, Navy Seal Aaron Vaughn, in Afghanistan in 2011.

Karen Vaughn of Stuart, with husband Billy, after speaking to Florida Republican National Convention delegates. She will speak to the GOP convention tonight about the death of her son, Navy Seal Aaron Vaughn, in Afghanistan in 2011.

CLEVELAND — Stuart resident Karen Vaughn, who will speak at tonight’s Republican National Convention about the death of her Navy Seal son in Afghanistan, got a rousing response from Florida delegates when she told her story this morning.

Aaron Vaughn and 29 others were killed when their helicopter was shot down in 2011. Karen Vaughn says her son died because President Barack Obama‘s administration has handcuffed the military with restrictive rules of engagement. She said Hillary Clinton would continue those policies.

“This has been the most horrific administration on our war fighters in the history of our country and it’s got to stop and I’ll tell you something, the policies of this woman who now wants to take office are the same as those of her predecessor, the man who’s leaving, and we cannot allow it to happen,” Vaughn told a Florida delegation breakfast in nearby Independence.

Aaron Vaughn was 30 when he died, leaving behind a wife and two children.

“We raised him in the ’80s when America was strong. He was 7 years old when Ronald Reagan spoke those famous words: ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ He didn’t say, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, lets have a beer and do some negotiation,’ or ‘Let me give you some bad guys back and see what you think about that,'” Vaughn said.

“We raised our boy to see this country as the greatest nation ever devised by man,” Vaughn said.

“Aaron died for America because he loved the concept of America,” Vaughn added.

Karen Vaughn speaking this morning to Florida Republican delegates.

She later criticized Clinton’s handling of the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans. Clinton and others in the Obama administration initially suggested the attack had been prompted by a YouTube video.

“He certainly did not die to watch a woman who stood over the bodies of four dead Americans and lied to their families, he didn’t die to give her the right to own the highest office in this nation,” said Vaughn.

Vaughn, scheduled to speak as part of a “Make America Safe Again” theme, said neither she nor her husband, Billy Vaughn, were Trump supporters at first.

“It took me a while to warm up because I really do like Marco Rubio,” Karen Vaughn said.

“She voted for Rubio. I voted for (Ted) Cruz. But we want Mr. Trump to be the president,” said Billy Vaughn.

“We know that Mr. Trump is working with people and he’s learning and listening to people who know how deadly those RoEs (rules of engagement) are….He’s listening to war fighters,” said Billy Vaughn.

The Vaughns said the strategy of trying to win the “hearts and minds” of U.S. enemies isn’t working and is deadly to the American military.

“People don’t join the military to win hearts and minds,” Billy Vaughn said. “Our son joined to fight and defeat the enemy. Our war fighters have been so politicized.”